


The Little Alien

by calvinahobbes



Category: 19th Century CE RPF, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-20
Updated: 2010-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-09 01:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/81600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calvinahobbes/pseuds/calvinahobbes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Eleventh Doctor and Amelia land in Copenhagen in 1836 and meet H.C. Andersen, the Danish poet and fairy tale author.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Alien

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Det lille rumvæsen](https://archiveofourown.org/works/81596) by [calvinahobbes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/calvinahobbes/pseuds/calvinahobbes). 



Hans Christian turned the corner of Store Strandstræde and entered the King's New Square. His walk was springy and free, and he was humming a piece of a melody he had heard just this week in the theatre. His belly was filled with good food, and he was content from the rewarding company - he had successfully improvised a small poem, and the Collin family had been very impressed with it indeed. He wanted to hurry home and write it down in his journal, while he still remembered. He made a chasse, which made him sway forward like a galloping giraffe, and the next moment he nearly tripped over his own feet: a loud, ominous and strange sound sang through the air around him.

He ducked his head and looked around in confusion. Just then a blinking light appeared, in the middle of the King's New Square, which lay deserted in the early evening. It was pulsing, almost like a lighthouse. Hans Christian took a curious but careful step towards it. The air shimmered in front of his eyes, and he rubbed them, and when he looked again a blue painted box with windows in its doors stood on the cobblestones.

Hans Christian exclaimed a short surprised laugh. This was very strange! And suddenly the door opened! And out tumbled, entirely wild and grinning, two exotically dressed young people. The first one, a young man with unruly hair and untidy clothes in gaudy colours, yelled, "Look, Amelia! London, 1836!" The young lady, who walked arm-in-arm with him, laughed and looked around - she was dressed entirely indecently in a skimpy skirt, which barely covered her thighs, and a short jacket of leather. Hans Christian blushed thoroughly and looked away quickly. Just as the odd couple was skipping away across the square, the young man came to an abrupt stop. "Now, wait just one moment!" He turned on the spot, spinning the young girl around like they were dancing. His gaze fell on Hans Christian, who inevitably took a step back at the power in those soulful eyes. "Excuse me, sir!" the man yelled and stalked towards Hans Christian with the girl in tow.

The man in the strange clothes stopped again, and his gaze turned even more piercing, until his face a moment later lit up in a wide, charming smile. "Why, Mr. Andersen! Haha!"

A shock jerked Hans Christian and he felt a trickle of warmth in his belly; he was quite certain that he had never met this odd person before. He cleared his throat. "Excuse me, I'm afraid I don't... Whom do I have the honour of...?"

"No, no, of course! You don't know me, but I know you! Amelia, meet Hans Christian Andersen!" He made a large arc with his arm, a gesture worthy of an actor. "Mr. Andersen, I am the Doctor, and this is Amelia. It's an honour to make your acquaintance!"

"You're joking!" the girl exclaimed, Amelia apparently, and came forward from her hiding place behind her companion. She stared at him until Hans Christian felt quite uncomfortable and began to feel rather insulted by her lack of manners. "Is it really H.C. Andersen? The one with the little mermaid?"

"Now, listen, I don't think-"

No, no, no! It's only 1836. The mermaid is later!" The man, the doctor, gave a big grin. His mood was quite infectious.

Hans Christian pulled himself together. "It's an honour to meet you both, I'm sure." He extended his hand to the doctor. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I heard the name?"

"That's because I didn't give you one! Just call me Doctor!" The Doctor caught his hand and squeezed and shook it energetically. "What a pleasure to bump into you! Always a pleasure to meet an author!"

Hans Christian felt his cheeks blush once again, but he also felt a certain sense of pride. Whoever these people were they had heard of his publications.

"What about 'Thumbelina'? Did you write 'Thumbelina' yet?" the girl asked.

He looked at her in wonder. What an odd way to ask! "I _am_ the one who wrote 'Thumbelina'. You have read my fairy tales I take it?" He took a small step forward and stooped towards her; he just had to know: "Tell me, what did you think of it?"

"Oh, I love it!" she exclaimed, and Hans Christian stood up straight and tried to hide his pleasure. These two persons were so wonderfully free and jolly; they were really quite childish in their manner!

"I am so pleased!" he told her. "Which part did you like best?"

But just as Amelia was about to answer, another singular noise sounded, much more intense and ominous than the sound of the Doctor's box, which Hans Christian has forgot all about when he met the wild couple. He looked over his shoulder in the direction the Doctor was now looking, towards the northeast, where the Citadel lay. A burning fireball like a comet chased across the sky and looked as if it fell into the harbour just outside the fortress. For a moment, Hans Christian thought that the English had returned to bomb Copenhagen once again.

"You're a lucky man, Andersen!" the Doctor shouted, and caught Hans Christian by the hand and began to run. "_That_ was an Unidentified Flying Object!"

Hans Christian ran along, confused, as the three of them thundered down Bredgade together like a team of wild horses. While he gasped for breath, he wondered at the Doctor's choice of words - he thought it was quite obvious that the object was both unidentified and flying. "Pardon me, where are we going?" he moaned, while he tried to keep his hat on his head.

"Hoho, Andersen, you'll love it! We are going to identify it, of course! Oh, I wonder! I think-- But let's see. Come on, come on, run faster, you two!"

They trampled down Bredgade and turned right along the Esplanade, when they reached the Citadel. They ran all the way to the harbour - and there, in the middle of the harbour, lay something much stranger than the Doctor's blue box and rocked in the surface of the water. The Doctor made another abrupt stop. "Oh! Amelia, I think it's a lost Meifys! They travel trillions of miles through space in large groups in their one-person-ships. This one has probably strayed too close to the Earth's atmosphere and crashed. We have to make sure it's still alive!" He threw himself down on his stomach, over the edge of the dock and stretched out his arm towards the oblong, silver, shining bubble the size of a small chest of drawers. Amelia quickly threw herself down on her knees and caught hold of his feet, while he, undaunted, crawled farther and farther out over the water. Finally he caught the bubble and drew it towards land.

"Andersen, come help," he called, and Hans Christian hurried closer to help him manoeuvre the slippery thing onto land. The Doctor had got up on his knees and rubbed his hair, making it stick up even more wildly than before. "Well, let's see, then!" He pulled an elongated thing out of his coat pocket and held it close to the silver egg. It began to hum and lit up green, and slowly the egg began to split open.

Hans Christian stared. He felt dizzy. Inside the egg, a small blue-green creature lay with large closed eyes, small nostrils in a flat face, and a wide mouth. It had silver looking hair and instead of legs it had something that looked like a fish tail. The Doctor leaned over the small creature. "I think she's still alive. Hello, sweetie, are you awake?" the Doctor asked in a touchingly mild voice. The creature moved and opened its eyes slowly. "Fantastic! Are you well?" The creature answered with a trilling, whistling sound and gestured with one arm. "How lovely. Well, if you'll just close your ship back up, I'll repair it right away, and you can catch up to your family!" The creature made more sounds. "Oh, not at all, not at all!" The Doctor beamed at it.

As the egg closed slowly back up, the creature caught Hans Christian's eye, and he thought he heard rushing waters. Then the door closed entirely, and the Doctor held the lit metal stick close to it again. A moment later the egg began to vibrate and suddenly it lifted off the ground and hovered an inch above the ground.

Everyone took a step back. The egg glistened unnaturally and rolled around its own axis. It floated slowly out over the water, while it vibrated more and more violently. It gained speed, and with a burst it shot across the water and up into the air and disappeared in a flash of light. Hans Christian stared after it for a long time.

"Incredible..." Amelia said.

The Doctor laughed and clapped a steady hand onto Hans Christian's shoulder. "My dear Andersen, I think you've just met your mermaid!" Amelia next to him laughed as well. Hans Christian gave them a confused look. "Come, come, Andersen," he said and drew him back towards the Esplanade by the hand on his shoulder.

Hans Christian felt like he was in a dream. He looked dully at the Doctor and his companion. "I think I have to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind..."

The Doctor put his arm around his back. "Ask away! You're a friend. Now you'll have even more to talk about with Charles Dickens when you meet him! Let's go back to the Tardis."

Hans Christian came along while he considered what question to ask first.

**Author's Note:**

> \- This is a translation of my story "Det lille rumvæsen"
> 
> \- Written for the Scandinavian AO3 Challenge.
> 
> \- This was born out of my two current most favorite things: watching the 11th Doctor and reading my H.C. Andersen biography (written by Jens Andersen).
> 
> \- H.C. Andersen published "The Little Mermaid" in 1937.
> 
> \- The English bombarded Copenhagen in 1807.
> 
> \- H.C. Andersen met Charles Dickens in 1862 in England.
> 
> \- [A painting of Andersen from 1836](http://www.hcandersen-homepage.dk/hcanders-billeder/andersen-1836-c.a.jensen.jpg).
> 
> \- The street names are accurate and trace a short route through 19th century Copenhagen.
> 
> \- The King's New Square (Kongens Nytorv) anno 1877 can be seen [here](http://images.berlingske.dk/node-images/426/620x355-c/426476-sheltens-pal-p-kongens-nytorv--.jpg).
> 
> \- In 1834 Andersen moved to an apartment in the street of Nyhavn no. 20, 2nd floor (i.e. 3rd floor in English measure), which probably looked a lot like [Gammel Strand in 1840](http://www.kb.dk/export/sites/kb_dk/da/nb/tema/webudstillinger/sk-mss/samtidige/4koebenhavn/4-12.jpg).
> 
> \- Andersen's benefactors, the Collin family, lived right nearby in Store Strandstræde.


End file.
